Hive
by Ettore
Summary: An accident during training leads to Naruto being integrated into the Ceph Hive. With the knowledge of the hive mind, he will use his newfound power to the best of his abilities. I do not own Naruto, Crysis, or any other recognizable cool thingies in here. Strong Naruto. Warning: several characters will be OOC including Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

This idea has been bugging me all night since I beat Crysis 3 and saw Prophet have the nanosuit's powers without wearing it.

In this story, The events of Crysis never happened and the Ceph are creatures of science. Don't criticize me, my stories are bound to get ridiculous.

* * *

Falling.

Jiraiya pushed him off a cliff.

What the hell?

Why was it that his "learning" always seemed to throw him into life or death situations?

These are things Naruto would have been thinking if he wasn't panicking. Seeing the ground of the not so bottomless pit approaching him, Naruto decided to call on the demon to help him, he had practiced entering his mindscape before, but never had he had to do so this quickly.

It was surprisingly easy.

He stood before massive gates with glowing red eyes behind them and a tiny little paper tag holding the gates shut. The eyes focused on him and a deep chuckle resonated through the chamber. "**Well if it isn't my incompetent container. No doubt to try to gain my chakra in an attempt to save yourself from the fall, hmm?"**

"That's right. If I die, you die. You've been living in my body for twelve years. Time to pay rent" said Naruto. A knowing laugh was his answer, **"I have no interest in helping you. While it is true that we will both die, only you will stay dead. I on the other hand will merely reform and be resurrected in a couple of years. Your death is in my best interest." **

Naruto was terrified. If the fox wouldn't let him use his chakra, then he really would die! Naruto's panic forced him out of his mindscape.

Naruto had just enough time to see the ground approach him before he smashed into it with a boom.

* * *

Jiraiya peered down into the fissure, waiting for some sign of his student's survival. Channelling chakra to his eyes, he looked down to the bottom of the fissure.

Only to see the corpse of his student.

"Oh no, no no no." Jiraiya said as he quickly summoned a large toad and used him to reach the bottom in a matter of seconds. Jiraiya jumped off the toad and landed next to Naruto. He looked for a pulse and found none, same with the breath.

Naruto was dead.

Jiraiya picked up the boy sadly and hopped up onto the toad.

Just as the toad was preparing to jump, a segmented tendril shot out of the ground and wrapped around the boy's arm, pulling him out of Jiraiya's grasp. More tendrils emerged and wrapped around the Naruto just as Jiraiya tried to grab him.

The ground split apart and the new crack glowed red from far beneath the surface. Hundreds of tendrils showed themselves and pulled the body into the ground while simultaneously creating an electric barrier that burned whien Jiraiya tried to smash his fist into it, but otherwise didn't waver. And just like that, the ground closed up with a bang, leaving Jiraiya and the toad alone. "I have to report this to Sensei." Said Jiraiya. He jumped on the toad and the toad began climbing up the side of the fissure.

Once they reached the top, Jiraiya jumped off the toad and dispelled it, running as fast as his legs could carry him, using shunshin occasionally. In a short amount of time, he arrived at the Hokage tower. Running up the stairs, he barged into the Hokage's office to see Sarutobi reading a familiar orange book. The oh so mighty Hokage rushed to put his porn back in it's drawer, but then he saw who it was who barged in, "Dammit Jiraiya! You almost gave me a heart attack."

"This is important, you know how i said i was going to train Naruto by throwing him off a cliff, and you told me not to?" Jiraiya asked. "Jiraiya..." the Third said warningly, but the sage ignored it, "Well i did it, only Naruto didn't awaken the kyuubi like I thought, he kept falling and smwshed into the bottom. He's dead."

Hiruzen's killing intent spiked to an all time high, "You're telling me that not only did you kill the jinchuurikki of the fucking KYUUBI, but you killed a boy who was like my own grandson to me, and then you have the balls to tell me that to my face?!"

Jiraiya's gaze softened, "I'm sorry, I thought i could teach him with the same extreme methods that i taught Minato, but it seems like Naruto wasn't cut from the same cloth as him. But that's not the only reason why I am here, when i tried to recover the body, a bunch of these metallic tendrils came out of the ground and took his body into the ground."

Hiruzen was horrified, "Are you sure they were metal? They weren't just shiny?" Confused, Jiraiya nodded, "They were metal all right, and they made a barrier i couldn't even crack out of electricity. Do you know something?"

Hiruzen nodded, "During the days of Hashirama Senju, there was a race of creatures many shinobi called the Ceph, due to the fact that they looked like cephalopods. They were an odd mixture of flesh and machine, a race of creatures far more advanced than anything we've ever seen. I never saw them of course, but i do know that they would have an Emissary, one seemingly human, and that they would never help out in any human matters, but the Emissary would. The Emissary had a type of special armor that made them an invisible, silent killing machine when they wanted, and an unstoppable juggernaut when they didn't want to use stealth."

A new voice made itself known, "We also collect genetic mutations in humans in exchange for our technology."said a very deep and somewhat mechanical sounding voice.

Both Sarutobi and Jiraiya jumped to the opposite corner of the room from where they heard the voice. The three hidden ANBU in the room sprang from their hiding spots to defend their leader.

"Good instincts. Too bad it wouldn't have saved you if i had chosen to kill you. But that's not why I'm here." Said the person who had appeared out of nowhere behind the desk, "I am Legion, the Emissary from the Hive, and I have been instructed to tell you that the one you call Naruto is being reconstructed with our technology as a test of sorts. Rest assured the experiment will conclude within a couple days, he will be awake in time for your Chuunin exams."

The person, Legion, was covered from head to toe with a black hooded cloak. Only his forearms were visible, and they looked like they were covered in some black muscle structure, with metal knuckles and joints.

"He will be given knowledge. After all, we can't have the vanguard of our return to the surface be a complete idiot now can we?" With that, the Emissary turned invisible and jumped out the open window.

"Cat, where is he?" Asked Sarutobi. Cat, the only ANBU with long purple hair, held her fingers in the half ram seal and searched for a minute before saying, "He's gone. I can't find any trace of him."

* * *

I'm piloting this because I don't know if people are going to like this or not. Also, should I give Naruto the ability to use chakra or should he solely use the energy from the hive mind? Yes he will be connected to the hive mind.


	2. Chapter 2

People seem to think Naruto will be getting a nanosuit. This is not going to happen, the nanosuit has already been used by the Ceph for hundreds of years, and will not be being used on Naruto. They are not reviving him out of the kindness of their hearts, they are reviving him to test some experimental technology. Naruto will not be wearing the nanosuit, the nanosuit will be wearing him. This is not to say that he will be in any way just another drone of the Ceph, he will retain some of his personality, but he will be tempered by the knowledge of thousands of years.

* * *

Sarutobi sighed as he looked at the paper in his hands, silently wishing to not have to do what he was about to.

He was going to tell the village about the Ceph.

Getting up, he walked out of his office and up the stairs that led to the top of the Hokage tower. Jiraiya was already up there, as was Kakashi. One day after the incident, Sarutobi decided to inform Kakashi despite Jiraiya's protest and insistence that he not remain in the area for that nugget of information to be revealed. Needless to say, there was now a smoking hole being repaired in his office from a Chidori.

This was the day after that, and it was the day that the Ceph would be revealed, seeing as they would be returning anyway whether he tells the village or not.

It wouldn't do to have the damned squids catch his village by surprise.

Legion had returned several times to speak with them about their intentions and when they would return. Legion revealed that they would return before the Chuunin exams, probably around the same time that Naruto is revived.

Walking up to the front of the tower, he looked below to see the entire village and it's shinobi gathered in the clearing below. They were all curious as to why they were summoned.

"People of Konoha," he shouted, "An issue has come to my attention that needs to be addressed. Between now and the final round of the Chuunin exams, a race of beings that were long thought to have left this world, will return. They are more advanced than us. They have more firepower than us. But most importantly, they mean us no harm. If they so chose, they could wipe this village off the map. But they won't, because they are interested in how the world will progress without their influence. They are scientists, and they will only be returning to view the world once more. They call themselves the Hive and we call them the Ceph. This race was alive during the time of Hashirama Senju and even he wouldn't instigate anything against them because he knows he couldn't win. But as long as you don't attack them, they won't declare war, and what's left of us won't have to find a new place to live. So, with that, please enjoy your day. And if you're worried about not knowing what they look like, you'll know them when you see them."

The third Hokage turned around on his heel walked back to the stairs, avoiding the thousands of questions from below the tower.

Walking back into the office, he was somewhat unsurprised by the black-clad form of Legion standing in front of his desk.

"Your people are not going to accept us freely. Humans fight and fear what they do not understand." He said. Hiruzen nodded, walking back to his chair, "I hope that at least some of them will accept you seeing as they are able to accept Naruto being the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. The strongest of the village will work with you at least."

"True." said Legion, "However, if a quantity is used in the right way, it can even overcome quality."

"What are you suggesting?" said Hiruzen as he narrowed his eyes.

"I do not think you have as much control over your village as you would like to think. We have been browsing through the memories of Naruto, and we have seen how this village treats him. We have seen how they coalesce like vermin into mobs hellbent on hunting him down and ending his life. We have seen how even your shinobi and ANBU neglect and torment him with their knives and techniques. This will not continue. Naruto will become the Charybdis, as is his birthright being both the heir of the Uzumaki clan and our newest Emissary. He is one of us now, and as such, an attack on him is an attack on the entire Hive, and will be dealt with as such. Keep this in mind the next time you speak to the one known as Danzo Shimura." Legion said ominously.

"Will Naruto still be able to participate in the Chunin exams?" asked Kakashi as he stepped into the office.

"Yes, as we have judged this as an adequate test of Naruto's abilities. We will release him after the grafting process is complete and we have taught him how to use his new energy source. He will still have chakra, but he will not be able to use it yet and when he does, it will be more akin to how a Bijuu uses their chakra seeing as he will no longer have any definitive chakra network. Usually chakra is vented outside the body at all times to prevent the network from exploding. Now, however, Naruto's chakra will continue to grow in a similar way to how the Bijuu started out the size of a house and grew to be the size of mountains. Naruto will only grow at his normal rate though, and by the time he finds out how to use chakra again, he will possibly have as much as the Ichibi."

"Wait, won't he overload from that?" asked Jiraiya.

"No." said Legion, "Hive units are more than capable of containing Bijuu sized chakra levels seeing as we contained the Kyuubi in the past in a similar way to your Jinchuuriki. In fact we plan on locating and resealing the Kyuubi into Naruto once more, after it reforms of course."

"WHAT?" Shouted Kakashi, "You mean to say that Naruto doesn't have the Kyuubi sealed in him anymore? What happened?"

Jiraiya was the one to answer, "I was hoping it wasn't true, but you just proved it right. Naruto is dead Kakashi. If they say the Kyuubi isn't inside Naruto anymore, it means that Naruto no longer had even a trace of chakra to hold back the Kyuubi. If a being has no chakra, it is dead. Which leads to the question; If Naruto is dead, what are they really going to be releasing in our village?"

Legion chuckled, an oily, metallic sound, before he said, "Indeed, Naruto was dead, but seeing as one of the main purposes of the experiment is to observe how one of your shinobi interacts with his peers after being exposed to the Hive's collective knowledge, we will be returning him with his prior memories intact. What he chooses to do with the knowledge is his choice, however, whether he chooses to protect this village or destroy it for the crimes that it has committed."

"What are you saying?!" Sarutobi shouted, "You mean to tell me that the Naruto I've known all these years would do something as evil as destroy the village? You're insane!"

"Let me remind you, Hiruzen Sarutobi, that Naruto was neglected, beaten and tortured both physically and mentally by the same people that, surprisingly, he himself has sworn to protect."

"But, it is possible that Naruto will also stand by his promise to protect the village... after all..."

"I never go back on my word. That's my Nindo, my ninja way."


End file.
